TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager

Re: Using Cell Phone as Pager

Bruce L. Bergman (blPYTHONbergman@earthlink.invalid)
Wed, 12 Jan 2005 08:32:21 GMT

Pat: Please leave the address munged. Also E-mailed to Joe.

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:00:44 -0600, joe <joe@wmdesign.net> wrote:

> I'm new to this forum and am fairly ignorant about digital
> communication, however after trolling the newsgroups, this seemed the
> most likely place for my post.

> My wife works at hospitals in two different cities. She carries a
> hospital-issued pager depending on which hospital and which floor she
> happens to be working on. She often forgets she's wearing the pager
> and brings it home. If she's not at the same location the following
> day, she has to return the pager for the next shift -- obviously a
> hassle.

> I was wondering if it would be possible to get her a smartphone that
> she could use as a pager depending on which location she is at. So
> instead of carrying the 4-South pager, she could push some key
> combination on her phone that would receive pages directed to the
> 4-South pager.

There are WAY too many variables to make a "universal pager" -- you
would have to know the radio frequency -- and paging systems use many
frequencies spread across all commercial VHF and UHF radio bands --
anywhere between 27 MHz to 900 MHz. You would need to know the
digital "cap code" address the pager answers to, and several types of
pager data protocols ...

Plus there's a huge privacy concern, because any pager that's so easy
to set as a duplicate of another could be used (by suspicious husbands
or wives etc.) to spy on someone else's pager -- you see every paged
number they see, and without a court order.

A much better solution would be to use Human Engineering -- make sure
she can't walk out the door with the pager in the first place.

Find something simple that works to remind her to turn in the pager.
Like having her clip her ID Badge or Timeclock Swipe Card to the
pager, so she can't clock out without noticing the pager following it
out of the pocket. Clip it to her car keys or bus/train monthly pass,
that will keep her from getting too far.

Or get a big red aircraft "Remove Before Flight" ribbon that clips to
the outside purse or backpack handle when the pager gets issued, and
doesn't get put away inside the purse until the pager is turned back
in.

Bruce L. Bergman, Woodland Hills (Los Angeles) CA - Desktop
Electrician for Westend Electric - CA726700
5737 Kanan Rd. #359, Agoura CA 91301 (818) 889-9545
Spamtrapped address: Remove the python and the invalid, and use a net.

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